Men jailed for stealing railway sleepers

06 July 2013

Five men who abused their positions as railway contractors to steal up to £1.5 million of track and railway sleepers, have been jailed for a total of 11 years and 9 months.

Two other men were also given suspended sentences of 21 months for their involvement.

John Burtenshaw, Terence Doherty, Neil Jones, Stuart Amphett, Nicky Halloran, Paul Tandon and Roy Skinner were all sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court this morning.

The court heard that Terry Doherty, a co-director of BRP (Rugby) Ltd – sub-contracted by Jarvis to remove rail, conspired with John Burtenshaw, Jarvis plant manager, to steal rail and railway sleepers which should have been taken to authorised recyclers with Network Rail receiving the value of the materials. 

An investigation by British Transport Police found that Doherty and Burtenshaw used their position to steal up 3,500 tonnes of rail track and railway sleepers worth up to £1.5m.

Detective Sergeant Chris Hearn says it was one of the biggest investigations he has ever worked on, and the men sentenced for stealing railway lines and railway sleepers had no care for the railway whatsoever.

“There is no doubt that the actions of this organised group deprived Network Rail and, in turn rail users across the country, of valuable finance which could have been put towards maintenance and improvements.

Neil Henry, Network Rail's head of operations and performance, said: "The value of the material stolen is wasted money as far as Network Rail is concerned. That's £1.5m that could otherwise have been spent on additional passenger facilities at stations or perhaps invested in technology to improve reliability of the railway.

"I hope the sentences today make others stop and think before they consider stealing vital equipment from the railway.